I love David Berlind. He took my not-so-transparent pitch about a Ray Ozzie comment on the Gillmor Gang yesterday and ran with it for the usual end-to-endzone touchdown. Yes, it was newsworthy that Ozzie apparently agrees with my Software Blades conceit that Microsoft has slipped out of the conversation and into what Craig Newmark is fond of calling his Customer Service Representative role. The notion of Bill Gates as the 21st Century Maytag repairman may seem a stretch, but second-mover advantage may turn out not to have the legs it used to if we never quite get there. And David, I didn't say Longhorn was already obsolete, but rather that it was obsolete on the day it was announced.

But what's even more interesting is how Berlind is helping turn Jonathan Schwartz' new enterprise-version board game (aka his blog) into something more. With Captain Kangaroo, Brokaw, and now Rather retired, the broadcast news cycle is being replaced by a linked series of overlaid podcasts. Here's how to play:

1. Schwartz uses his invitation to join the Gillmor Gang as a full-fledged Gang member to lay down the basic tracks of his latest blog message. Hover over link for secret clue

2. Berlind notes the time stamp on the blog post as fuel for the conjecture that perhaps Schwartz may have something up his sleeve. You think?

So, what can we make of Schwartz's comments? His blog has, on several occasions, foreshadowed a Sun announcement or two (on others, it has outright pre-announced them).

3. Now, it's back to Schwartz, who links to the Gillmor Gangcast and alludes to some mysterious bet about where we'll be in a year that he was talking about on this podcast, whatever that is. For those of us in the enterprise space a year ago who gagged when Jonathan talked about ring tones as the bellweather of the new era, this time we're paying attention.

And attention is what you need to follow these mashups of information, marketing, and prophecy. Schwartz drops more breadcrumbs down the page:

Think this is the end? No way. Just go look here, and imagine this included in anything that moves, sold to a consumer.

4. Back to Berlind:

With its smart card capabilities, a Sun Ray thin client has a lot to offer to a service provider that wants to give its customers a simple, safe, reliable way to browse and transact over the Internet.